The rankings are based on home demand and speed of sale in the county's largest 200 markets. San Luis Obispo County landed at No. 13 behind Santa Cruz (No. 12) and just in front of Ventura County (No. 14).

Fri April 17, 2015

The largest brewery on the Central Coast, Firestone Walker in Paso Robles, is working to solve an odor problem that has plagued the brewery and local neighbors for days.

Brewing requires a lot of water, and much of that water can be collected and saved, so Firestone Walker Brewery decided to build water retention ponds for that purpose. The problem is that once the ponds started to fill up with water from the brewery, bacteria started to grow and put off a foul odor.

Adam Firestone, one of the company's founders, says this clearly wasn't part of the plan.

Business

5:21 pm

Thu April 9, 2015

A Central Coast based company that teaches online "how-to" courses on technology is being acquired by Silicon Valley giant LinkedIn.

The purchase price for Carpinteria-based Lynda.com is estimated at $1.5 billion dollars, which includes a combination of cash and stock.

"This is such an exciting moment in the 20-year history of lynda.com, and I couldn't imagine a better pairing than lynda.com and LinkedIn," said Lynda Weinman, co-founder and executive chair of the board of lynda.com in a company statement.

The specialized manufacturing sector of the San Luis Obispo County economy accounts for 2.27 percent of the jobs in the area, but according to number from the Economic Vitality Corporation (EVC), those jobs come with an average pay-scale higher then most other industries — $65,855.

While relatively small, the sector is growing. The latest numbers show it grew seven percent from 2008 to 2014.

As many as 1,500 homes could be built at Wild Cherry Canyon near Avila Beach if a new, controversial proposal gets approval. Avila Beach residents and supporters of the Wild Cherry Canyon conservation effort are upset over the potential housing development that could triple the size of the small beach town's population.

Kara Woodruff spearheaded the Wild Cherry Canyon protection effort and says she has concerns about issues surrounding water availability, sensitive habitat, and traffic.

The recent passage of the City of San Luis Obispo’s update to the General Plan—known as the LUCE, or Land Use and Circulation Elements—opened the door for several large development projects to move forward.

One of the those is a $16.5 million project that sits at the intersection of South Higuera and Tank Farm Road, called the SLO Public Market.

Some long-time locals may know the parcel as the historic Long-Bonetti Ranch.

Business

12:13 pm

Sun February 15, 2015

Todd Fisher, the son of Hollywood icon Debbie Reynolds and the brother of Star Wars actress Carrie Fisher, recently went public with a high-end production company on the Central Coast. The Hollywood Motion Picture Experience (HMPE) is located in the small San Luis Obispo County town of Creston.

Fisher is the co-founder and chief creative officer of the full production and post-production house that he built on his secluded, self-sustaining, solar-powered ranch.

Internet website giant GoDaddy.com is pulling the puppy ad it released Tuesday on YouTube, after a strong backlash of comments from people who support pet adoption and rescue.

"Thank you @animalrescuers for the candid feedback," tweeted company CEO and San Luis Obispo resident Blake Irving early Tuesday afternoon. "What should have been a fun and funny ad clearly missed the mark and we will not air it."

The YouTube posting of the clip was shifted to "private" Tuesday afternoon as well.

Plans to re-establish Montecito's Miramar Hotel now have a green light from the local planning commission.

The approved project is smaller than what was originally proposed, and as of Thursday, there was no word on whether developer Rick Caruso plans to move forward with the modified design.

If Caruso Affiliated does continue with the project, it would still needs to go through an appeals period and will also need approval from the Board of Architectural Review. There is no requirement for a Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors vote, unless it's appealed to that body.

A study released Thursday shows women in business have made some progress in serving on boards and securing high paid positions in California.

State Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson says its a top goal of hers to increase the percentage of business women in leadership positions. She authored a resolution last year—the first-of-its-kind in the nation—urging California's 400 largest publicly-held corporations to do just that.

The UC Davis study shows only about one-in-nine top executives or board members are women, a slight increase over the previous year.